


Divine Comedy

by Totipalmate



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-18
Updated: 2015-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-09 21:54:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4365575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Totipalmate/pseuds/Totipalmate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><div>
  <p>
    <br/>
    <i>“You’re always so happy,” Steven said to her once, when he was older; when the Universe household had become the Maheswaran-Universe household and the novelty of “giant women” had worn off, leaving a raw, human sort of curiosity about the people his loved ones occasionally became.</i>
  </p>
  <p>
    <i>“Of course I’m happy,” Sardonyx replied. “I am <span class="u">me</span>, after all.”</i>
    <br/>
  </p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	Divine Comedy

When you’re a little kid, everything seems normal, even if it’s really quite bizarre. The world is mostly black and white. People love. People hate. Some are mean. Some are nice. Grey areas exist, but they’re simple, technical, and specific. _Shots hurt, and hurting people is bad, but immunizations keep you from getting sick, so no one thinks doctors are bad people_ \--you know, that sort of thing. Little gray areas. Ones that can be compartmentalized. Exceptions to the rules, that don’t negate the immutable truths of the universe. Mommy loves daddy. Name-calling is mean. Friends are forever.

 

Then you grow up, and you learn that a lot of friendships are transient, some people are douchebags, and although mommy might have loved daddy, daddy wasn’t the only one who loved mommy. Mom loved mommy, and mama loved mom, and everyone suffered, just a little bit.

 

* * *

 

“You’re always so happy,” Steven said to her once, when he was older; when the Universe household had become the Maheswaran-Universe household and the novelty of “giant women” had worn off, leaving a raw, human sort of curiosity about the people his loved ones occasionally became.

 

“Of course I’m happy,” Sardonyx replied. “I am me, after all.”

 

“You’re happy with your life?” He asked. It was a valid question. For most fusions, “life” was intermittent and infrequent. Moments of consciousness scattered to the winds. Sardonyx laughed.

 

“My life is amazing!” she enthused. “Perfect, I dare say. Utterly flawless, in every way.”

 

“That’s a bold statement,” Steven challenged pleasantly.

 

“I’m a bold person,” came the reply.

 

Recent repairs to the crumbling temple had demanded more than the gems, separate, could have ever provided. Opal lent her fearless grace, and Alexandrite, raw size and power. Sardonyx was a rare sight, all things considered, but tasks near the crystal heart required a certain precision found lacking elsewhere. Steven had come to appreciate the opportunity to learn more about these gems as individuals; inextricable, yet utterly unique, from those which comprised them.

 

“Can’t argue with that,” he conceded.  “You’re...something special?”

 

“Special ain’t the half of it,” she corrected, with a toothy grin. No self-esteem issues there. Steven watched her shatter a crystal growth with a casual flick of the wrist; half a ton of raw mineral, turned to dust in an instant.

 

“How did you do that?” he questioned. The wonderment of his youth had morphed into a practical curiosity in his adulthood; any skill was a good one to have.

 

“Quite simple, really,” she waved off. “You merely have to strike an object at the right point, with the right force, and...poof.”

 

She made an elegant, theatrical gesture of explosion with all four hands.

 

“That sounds like something Pearl would say.”

 

“Well...I _am_ the finest points of both of them, Garnet and Pearl,” Sardonyx chortled, haughty. “With a little something extra mixed in, for... _flavor_.”

 

“I think you like being you, almost as much as Pearl likes being you,” he observed, amused.

 

“Oh, no, no, no,” Sardonyx clicked her tongue, with a waggle of her finger. “Sweet Steven, you misunderstand. I’m not so much the goal, as I am an immensely pleasant byproduct.”

 

“That...doesn’t make any sense.”

 

“I wholly agree. Lovely little me...I’m really the best part.”

 

“No,” he corrected. “I mean- how could a fusion...be the byproduct of a fusion?”

 

“Oh, that,” Sardonyx sighed, and cast her eyes elsewhere, gaze momentarily wistful. Then she seemed to snap out of it. “Fusion is intimate. The most intimate thing two gems could do, really. That’s all Pearl wants--intimacy. And I am all too happy to oblige.”

 

The implications behind Sardonyx’s words weren’t anything new. Pearl’s pleas for attention had never been subtle and she was, in the most literal sense, clingy. Steven could remember a time when her need had almost destroyed their family, and had long ago made assumptions that certain things--whatever they might be--happened between his not-quite-mothers behind the privacy of closed temple doors. Nonetheless, it felt bizarre, to hear such a thing from Sardonyx, who was both privileged with information, and unaffected by its divulgence; like hearing a secret secondhand.

 

“You’re not going to tell me that you’re made of love, are you?” he half-joked.

 

“Pfft,” Sardonyx snorted. Air whistled, thin and fleeting, as it was pushed through the gap in her teeth. “Garnet and Pearl _wish_ they were Ruby and Sapphire. Metaphorically speaking, of course.”

 

“Do you...know Ruby and Sapphire?” he asked. He’d never really wrapped his head around the finer logistical points of nesting fusions.

 

“Ohhh, they’re knocking around in here somewhere,” laughed Sardonyx, head bobbing and rolling on her shoulders. Physical humor. Steven guffawed.

 

“It’s...an intense love,” he conceded, when quiet returned to the chamber. “I don’t...think I can even imagine it.”

 

“I wouldn’t let Connie hear you say that,” she clucked, teasing.

 

“Hey,” Steven defended.  “I love my wife. That doesn’t mean either of us want to spend the rest of our lives as Stevonnie.”

 

There was a momentary lull in the conversation. Sardonyx worked, pruning errant crystalline protrusions from the temple heart with a surgical sort of efficacy. Steven watched for a time, in a mostly comfortable silence, but his thoughts kept wandering back to a lost remark.

 

“Are...Garnet and Pearl...unhappy?” He questioned, at length. It seemed to throw Sardonyx off, and she paused, halfway through inspecting a hairline crack in the ancient structure.

 

“Why would you ask a thing like that?” She chided, in a jovial tone that sounded forced and insincere.

 

“You said that they ‘wish’ they could be like Ruby and Sapphire,” he reminded. “What...what does that mean, exactly?”

 

“Dear boy, you shouldn’t dwell on the past,” Sardonyx dismissed, brushing him off.

 

“I’m serious,” he pushed, undeterred by her evasiveness. “I know Garnet and Pearl have their problems, but...they’ve held it together this long, right? They were the backbone of my family growing up. That’s not...worth _nothing_.”

 

“You know what Garnet and Pearl are, Steven?” Sardonyx snapped back, in a tone he’d never heard from her. She stared at the pulsing crystal under her hands, but it was clear that she wasn’t actually looking at it. “Garnet and Pearl are an _act_. A real show-stopper. They’re a performance that’s been going on longer than you’ve been alive, kid, and I’m their encore.”

 

Steven recoiled a little at her uncharacteristic abrasiveness. She seemed to deflate a little in front of him, hands sliding listlessly down the surface of the Crystal Heart.

 

“I’m going to need you to lick this,” she said, blandly, when the silence became oppressive. Steven looked at the minuscule crack seated in the middle area between her many hands. He’d have never noticed it, if she hadn’t pointed it out.

 

“This has something to do with mom, doesn’t it?” He interrogated, still peering at the fracture in the crystal. It seemed to be the case that, when someone was pained over the past, it always came down to Rose Quartz. Sardonyx sighed, heavy and weary.

 

“Do you really want to pursue that line of questioning?” She deadpanned, pushing away from the heart. Her back to Steven, she took a few steps away, and then took off her glasses, cleaning them with her coat tails.

 

“Why not?” Steven shrugged, but it was a weighty sort of flippancy, like he couldn’t be bothered to be burdened anymore. “What are you going to tell me now, that’s any worse than anything anyone has ever told me?”

 

“I could tell you that I hated Rose Quartz,” Sardonyx answered, as she slipped her glasses back onto her face. Steven faltered, evidently not expecting such a response.

 

“You...hated my mom?”

 

There was a beat of time, in which neither of them breathed, and then Sardonyx looked over her shoulder, grinning.

 

“Just kidding,” she chirped, with a wave. “Your mother was a dear friend of mine.”

 

Steven hesitated, struck dumbfounded; then a hot anger boiled up inside of him.

 

“How can you even make a joke like that?” He demanded. “She was your friend, and she’s gone.”

 

“Mm, mmhmm,” Sardonyx rumbled, contemplatively, taking his words to heart. “You’re right, you’re right. That was a bit _sardonic_ of me.”

 

“Was-...was that a pun?” Steven stammered, genuinely struck by her cavalier attitude.

 

“Guilty,” Sardonyx conceded. Then she started to laugh.

 

“Stop it-!” Steven yelled. He was trembling. “How-...how can you laugh about something like that?”

 

Sardonyx quieted abruptly. Turning to face forward, Steven could no longer see her face when she spoke.

 

“Life is a practical joke, Steven,” she advised. “The only way to survive is to learn to laugh.”

 

Her footsteps echoed through the chamber as she walked to the far wall and sat down, back to the cold stone. She draped two arms over her legs, crossed the third over her chest, and rested the elbow of the fourth in its palm, propping her chin up on her own fist.

 

“Come here, child,” she urged, gently. She sounded tired. Steven obliged, taking a seat beside her on the dusty floor.

 

“I’m 32 years old,” he reminded her, weakly. Sitting in her shadow, he felt remarkably childlike.

 

“You’ll always be a baby to me,” she replied, with a forced smile. Lifting one hand off her knee, she squished his face between her thumb and forefinger.

 

“Now you sound like dad,” Steven told her.

 

“Ah, Greg,” she breathed. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back to rest against the wall. “Now _there_ is a delightful man.”

 

“Are you sure you’re one of Pearl’s fusions?” he teased, in a bid to salvage the mood.

 

“Oh, I am positive,” she assured. She opened two eyes, staring intently at nothing. “Greg was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

 

“So, it does have to do with mom,” Steven extrapolated, eyes downcast.

 

“Are you surprised?”

 

“No,” he admitted. He’d heard variations of the same story his entire life. “Pearl...loved my mother, didn’t she?”

 

“Pearl was infatuated with your mother,” Sardonyx corrected, more harshly than she meant to. “There’s a difference.”

 

“You seem angry,” Steven observed, needlessly. Sardonyx clenched a fist; it trembled and then fell slack, like the life had drained out of her.

 

“A fusion is the cooperation between two gems. For one glorious moment, you give everything you have to someone else,” She said, plaintive. “What do you think happens, when one of them wants to be somewhere else?”

 

“...you turn out like Opal?” He hazarded a guess. Sardonyx grinned, wide and bitter.

 

“Opal? Opal’s problems are superficial,” She dismissed.

 

“Malachite?” He tried next, with a sense of dread.

 

“Oh, heavens no!” She snorted. “They’re dysfunctional, sweetheart, not a trainwreck.”

 

She lifted two of her hands, peering down at a pair of gems that were and weren’t hers.

 

“You’re miserable,” she explained. “Every waking moment of every day. Eventually, you dread existing.”

 

“That...sounds awful,” Steven whispered, head low. Sardonyx made a small noise of acknowledgement.

 

“I refuse to be miserable,” She assured. “I am ecstatic to be here, even if they aren’t.“

 

“Are you?” Steven asked, skeptical. “Don’t...don’t you need them to be happy?”

 

“I don’t see why I would,” she dismissed, casually. “I never have, before.”

 

“So Garnet and Pearl aren’t happy,” he concluded. Even as a grown man, it was a crushing realization. He hung his head, but Sardonyx snickered.

 

“I don’t believe I ever said such a thing,” she tsk’d. “If you wanted, you could say that I am...everything Garnet and Pearl have the _potential_ to be.”

 

“You mean...happy?” Steven clarified.

 

“Perfect,” Sardonyx corrected. “Flawless together, in every conceivable way.”

 

“You think so?”

 

“I’m never wrong.”

 

Steven smiled a little; weak and tired, but genuine. He checked his watch--a quarter to 2:00am. Connie was probably already in bed.

 

“Are you going to unfuse?” He asked her, as he stood.

 

“Not yet,” she murmured, shaking her head. “Goodnight, Steven. Give that lovely wife of yours a kiss for me.”

 

She winked. Steven laughed. Sardonyx laughed.

 

“Creepy,” he teased, summoning the door. It opened into the darkness of the kitchen. Up in the loft, a light was burning. Maybe Connie wasn’t asleep, after all. “I’ll take care of the Crystal Heart tomorrow.”

 

He waved as he disappeared into his home. The door slid closed behind him, and blinked out into nothingness. Sardonyx sighed, and folded all four arms across her her chest.

 

“I do so hate lying to the boy,” she whispered, into the darkness. She chuckled.

 

Then she began to cry.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> **The Crewniverse is trying to kill me.** So, I actually started this _before_ I saw any of the Bomb. I was spoiled to a three minute clip of Sardonyx Wednesday afternoon, and got super hype; I was like, "YEAH. PEARLNET FUSION. LOOK HOW HAPPY THEY ARE. FUCKIN' SWEET, GONNA WRITE ME SOME FANFICTION." So I wrote basically up to "that doesn't mean we want to spend the rest of our lives as Stevonnie" before seeing any of this week's episodes. Then I actually watched Cry for Help.
> 
> _'SCUSE U, CREWNIVERSE._ Fucking...everyone was so happy, EVERYONE WAS SO HAPPY, and then Pearl had to go and be unhealthy, like she always is because she's TERRIBLE and I just. _Uuuuugh._ Not to mention, I can't tell if Friend Ship is a friend to my ship or its enemy, but at least someone told Pearl to stop defining her existence around Rose.
> 
> Did anyone else notice that the crying spoon Pear lied to was voiced by Adele?
> 
> (Sardonyx reminds me just a little bit of the Warden, from Superjail!.)


End file.
